


paint by numbers

by flowercoast



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Prompt Fill, prompt, the mighty nein just want good things for their blue gals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22424614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowercoast/pseuds/flowercoast
Summary: Beau and Jester, through the Mighty Nein’s eyes.
Relationships: Jester Lavorre/Beauregard Lionett
Comments: 13
Kudos: 154





	paint by numbers

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: I kind of just want to see Beaujester from the rest of the M9 perspective.

Yasha sees it first. It’s the middle of the night and she’s the only one on watch, sitting tall in the darkness as she braids together a flower crown that she can barely see. She’s working by moonlight and muscle memory, weaving together green stems and stroking along soft petals. It helps. The working tirelessly and the not sleeping. Nightmares only come to her when her eyes are closed, so she stares at the flowers and keeps on twisting the stems together, looping green over green and gently continuing on. 

The night is so quiet that it’s hard not to notice when Jester wakes with a desperate gasp for air, sitting up so suddenly that Yasha almost pops her wings out on instinct. But even the thought of hurting the others leaves an odd, sour taste in her mouth, so Yasha just sits silently and stares at Jester’s heaving form, barely more than a dark outline in the night. If she doesn’t go back to sleep soon, Yasha will go over there and hopefully help her. 

She doesn’t have to. 

“Jes?” Beau grunts and sits up, her form equally as dark across the hut. 

Jester sniffles in response, a choked off sob escaping her lips before she collapses, leaning fully into Beau. Yasha can just make out her arms wrapped tight around Beau, who hugs back just as fiercely, and then their silhouettes start to meld together with how hard they’re holding onto each other. It makes Yasha’s heart ache to see the desperation in their movements. She wants, more than anything to go over there and kill whoever haunts their dreams but she can’t - not yet. 

Beau strokes her hand along Jester’s back gentle, lowering her face to press her cheek against Jester’s blue one, her lips moving but the words too soft to carry over to Yasha’s side of the hut. So she sits there, watching Jester collapse and cry into Beau, their forms just one big dark blob moving and breathing together.

Something seems familiar about this - the late night comforts wrapped in warmth. It’s like a buzzing feeling, sitting like a memory that’s just out of reach in Yasha’s head, too far to see clearly but still present. 

Yasha shakes her head to clear the feeling and continues braiding the flower crown, still occasionally sneaking glances up at Beau and Jester, still sinking into each other. 

After a moment, the clouds part and Yasha can see their faces clearly, still a little shrouded in darkness but softly blue lit all the same. Beau and Jester have shifted - now they rest, forehead to forehead, hands on each other’s cheeks and just breathing. 

It feels so intimate that Yasha blushes and looks away. That same nagging feeling in the back of her head increases tenfold, but she ignores it. When she looks back at the pair, they’ve moved to lay down, Jester resting her head on Beau’s chest. 

Yasha breathes out heavily through her nose and continues looking out into the darkness, braiding the flower crown. 

It takes another day for Yasha to realize: Zuala used comfort her like that after a nightmare. 

Yasha can’t stop staring at them and wondering, now. 

~~~ 

Fjord notices it next. They’re sitting by the side of the road and laying down in some tall grasses to recover after a fight when Jester walks over to Beau, who’s laying face down in the dirt. 

“Beau, get up.” Jester crouches down next to her, placing a hand on Beau’s shoulder. “I gotta heal you.”

Beau groans tiredly but moves anyway, slowly pushing herself up to sitting and Fjord can now see the large, bloody cut trailing down the left side of her face, alongside a deep purple and yellow mottled bruise that makes Fjord wince by just looking at it. He’s so glad that he wasn’t up close and personal with those giants. Maybe not as glad though, to see Beau so injured. He’s not too worried - Jester has it handled.

As soon as Beau’s sitting upright, Jester has her hand on Beau’s back, helping support her. The other hand slides up Beau’s face, pausing briefly when Beau hisses at the sting before gently, gingerly, spreading over the deep cut in her cheek. Fjord watches as green magic flows through blue fingers, crawling over Beau’s face like a puff of air and sparkles. It’s always intrigued Fjord just how magic like that works - if it feels different for others than it does for him, because it certainly looks different enough, but he shelves that thought for another time. 

For now he’s content to sit in the tall grasses next to where Yasha’s quietly braiding together another flower crown. This one’s for him, so she needs his head to make sure it’s measured right. Plus, Fjord likes sitting next to Yasha and just watching the others. There’s a certain calm and strength that Yasha has that he can’t help but be drawn to, sometimes. 

Jester drums her fingers against Beau’s cheekbone when the magic fades away, probably testing to see if it’s still bruised. She leans closer to Beau, turning their friend’s face this way and that just to double check. Fjord stares at them, noticing that Beau looks sort of tense all of a sudden, and he has half a mind to tell Jester to lay off for a bit, except… Is that a blush on Beau’s cheeks?

He stares. Rubs at his eyes and squints like it’ll help him see clearer. 

That’s definitely a blush. Not even a small, embarrassed one. It’s the kinda blush Beau gets whenever she talks to hot women, and occasionally. Well. Around Jester.

Oh. 

A hand on his shoulder startles him out of his thoughts. Fjord looks up to see Yasha, her eyes alight with something deep and indescribable as she holds out his flower crown. 

“Here,” She says, placing it atop his head. 

Fjord reaches a hand up to touch the soft petals. “Thanks.” 

Yasha nods, cuts a quick glance over to where Beau and Jester are still sitting close. “They’re good.”

“Hm?”

“Together.” Yasha looks back at him, her eyes soft and full of feeling. “They’re good together.”

Fjord glances over at Beau and Jester. A blush still sits high on Beau’s cheeks but she’s not tense, now. Her shoulders are relaxed and she’s leaning into the hand still on her cheek, her own hand coming up to press against the back of Jester’s. Her lips are moving but Fjord’s too far away to hear anything. Jester giggles loudly, and a fond smile crosses Beau’s lips. Her eyes are full of softness and a fondness Fjord’s never seen before. Jester, even though he can only partially see her face, has a grin bright enough to rival the sun. Her fingers are stroking over Beau’s cheek.

“Yeah. They are.”

~~~ 

Caleb is the last to find out, but only because Nott knows from Beau, and Caduceus has always known. It’s quiet in the inn they’re staying at, delightfully so, which makes for the perfect atmosphere to continue work on his spells. 

The scratching of his quill on paper soothes him, lets his mind drift to other things. Jester and Beau are talking quietly behind him, sitting together at a table alone, and Caleb can’t help but tune into their conversation, despite his own reservations. They just happen to be very loud, and it’s hard to not listen. 

“Beau! Of course I can!” Jester says, loud. 

Caleb can practically see Beau’s smug smirk, even though his back is turned. “Sure, Jes.”

“Watch this!” 

Silence takes over the room - Caleb mentally starts counting the seconds in his head, coming up to four before Jester starts cheering while Beau cackles. 

“Holy shit! That was amazing!” Caleb really wants to turn around to see just what they’re doing, but at the same time he’s still copying down a spell. Work comes first. 

“Told you I could do it!”

“Never doubted you for a moment.” 

“Beau!” 

“Okay, okay! Hey, jeez watch it! You’re buff as fuck, that’ll for sure bruise tomorrow.”

“Wait, did I actually -“

“Nah.”

It falls silent. Caleb taps his fingers methodically against the table to keep himself from turning around. 

“Beau.” 

“Hm?” They’re quieter now, almost to the point where Caleb has to slightly strain to hear them. 

“You have something…” 

“Here?”

“No.” Fabrics shuffle and he imagines that Jester’s reaching over the table with how the wood creaks too. “Here.”

Jester’s voice is so soft and wondrous - Caleb’s never heard her sound like that before. He bites on the inside of his cheek, deliberating. His work can wait for a moment. Slowly, he turns his head to look over at Beau and Jester’s table. 

They’re sitting close, their sides practically pressed together with their intimacy. It makes sense - they’re the only people in this section of the bar besides Caleb, and they know he’s too busy with reading to heed them any mind. Still, the soft intensity to their actions makes Caleb blush slightly, and reprimand himself for turning around in the first place. He notices Jester’s hand resting lightly on Beau’s cheek, thumb on her lip, and they’re both silent - blue eyes on purple, leaning closer.

Caleb averts his gaze. Wonders if he should remind them that they’re in public, that anyone could be spying on them and see their affair. He shakes the thought away - they never get soft moments like these nowadays. Everyone, especially those two, deserve moments of respite, and if they find comfort in each other, well. Caleb will stand strong by them as they do so.

“Thanks.” Comes Beau’s voice, more raspy and deep than before. 

  
Jester coughs lightly and the wood creaks as she shifts away. “No problem.”

It’s dangerous to love someone. Caleb knows this fact intimately. But Beau and Jester are his friends. Their love will prevail - he will make it so. 

Caleb finishes the last sentence on his paper and stands. He needs to find Nott.

~~~

Nott already knows, and she plans on doing something with that knowledge. 

“It should be Beau and Jester!”

Everyone whips around to stare at Nott with increasing levels of surprise written on their faces. Well, on most of their faces. Beau is just glaring at her, which isn’t surprising at all.

“The shopkeeper likes the color blue,” Nott continues, stepping closer to Jester and looking pointedly over at Caleb. “Who better to go than our two blue gals?” 

Fjord raises an eyebrow. “Nott, I don’t think -”

“Ja, I think it is a good idea,” Caleb cuts in, ignoring Fjord’s confused glance. He steps closer to Beau and lays a hand on her tense shoulder.

“So it’s settled then? Beau and Jester go in as a couple and distract the shopkeeper?” 

“Wait, hold on - don’t Jes and I get a say in -”

“That sounds like a great idea.” Yasha walks forward and places her own hand on Jester’s shoulder, looking down at Nott with a quirk in the corner of her lips that Nott’s never really seen on her before. Nott nods at her.

“To the market!” 

The walk to the market takes only five minutes, but that trip becomes somewhere closer to ten when Nott keeps on trying to evade Beau’s attempts to corner her by climbing all over Yasha and Caleb. Nott feels only a little bad when Beau gets all sulky and grumpy, but not really because this is for her own good. After this whole mission, Jester and Beau will be closer than ever, and then Beau will be tripping over herself to thank her, Nott is sure of it.

“So… the plan?” Fjord throws his arm around Beau’s shoulders, pulling her even closer when she tries to shrug out of his grasp. 

Nott leans over to him from where she’s perched atop Yasha’s broad shoulders. “Beau and Jester go in, acting like a very in love couple. We steal the thing from the back.”

“Uh huh. Got that.” Fjord purses his lips and lets go of Beau. “But like. What about the details? I feel like we might need a little more than that.”

“It’s not that complicated, Fjord.” Nott says haughtily, blinking slowly at him with her wide yellow eyes. Fjord frowns.

Jester, who’s been pretty quiet and walking more slowly than usual, hooks her arm through Caduceus’. “So, we’re like. Pretending to be a couple -” She glances over at Beau, who’s studiously looking away. “To distract the shopkeeper so you guys can sneak in and steal this super important chalice so that we can finish the Wildmother’s mission so Caduceus can heal his home?”

Caduceus hums. “Yeah, pretty much. That’s a very good way of putting it.”

“Thanks.” 

“Shut up!” Nott jumps down from Yasha’s shoulders. “We’re here.”

“It’s the middle of the day, we’re allowed to talk-”

Nott ignores Fjord. “Okay, Jester and Beau, you got this.” 

Beau glares at her but nods anyways, loops her arm through Jester’s and plasters on a fake smile. “You’ll pay for this.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Team, move out!” 

With a last parting glance at Jester and Beau, Nott darts into the alleyway quick, her footsteps barely echoing off the pavement as she moves from shadow to shadow until she’s at the back entrance. She takes out her lockpicks and starts on the door, not bothering to wait for the others to catch up to her. 

“What’s with the hurry?” Fjord hisses at her when he arrives, crouching low to the floor. Nott almost laughs at him for it, but she’s too busy still trying to get this lock open. 

The lock pops quietly and Nott pushes open the door. “I wanna see what they’re doing in there.”

“Oh, is this about Beau and Jester?” Caduceus is crouching too, which Nott squints at because it seems like he’s just as loud, maybe even louder than he normally is standing up. 

“Ja.”

“Nice.”

Nott shushes them all and gestures towards the open door. They quiet and nod back at her, so she steels herself and tiptoes in, coming into a small back room filled with boxes. She pauses in the middle of the room and waits until everyone’s filed in behind her before tapping Yasha on the shoulder and gesturing towards the general area of the boxes. Hopefully they figure out what it is that she wants. With that, Nott heads for the main door, taking out a piece of gum and whispering into it to become invisible. She doesn’t wait for a response from them - knowing what Beau and Jester are up to is far more important, here. 

The store is more or less empty when Nott steps out into the hallway that joins it to the backroom. She can distantly hear Beau and Jester’s familiar voices, so she treads quietly down the hall until she reaches the storefront, and she can see Beau leaning up against the counter, a wide grin on her face as Jester hugs her from behind and whispers in her ear.

Yeah, Beau will definitely thank her after this. 

“May I help you?” A woman with ruler straight hair and slimy blue skin leans over the counter, her eyes alight with amusement. 

“Yes, well -” Beau leans back into Jester’s arms. “My wife and I were actually wondering if we could commission you for something.”

The woman grins, too sharp. Nott creeps closer. “Of course! Anything for blue hued friends.”

“We wanted something unique.” Jester now, speaking with a lilting accent and nuzzling into Beau’s neck. A smile creeps up Nott’s face at the flush that settles atop Beau’s cheeks. 

“I’m the master of unique.”   
  


Beau clears her throat. “Um. Do you have any exotic wares we could examine? Before making our pick.”

“Yes, my wife here is quite picky.” Beau huffs and Jester squeezes her side, covering a smile in the side of Beau’s neck. 

“Follow me.” The woman steps out from behind the counter and makes her way over to one of the tall shelves set along the wall, long fingers crawling over the wood, kicking up dust in their wake. Beau untangles herself from Jester but doesn’t go far - she slips her hand into Jester’s and leads her over to the woman while Jester leans her head on Beau’s shoulder, plays with her fingers. 

Nott grins.

“Nott. We have the chalice. Is everything alright out there?” Caleb’s voice fills her ear and Nott jumps lightly, eyes darting around to make sure that no one’s noticed her. The shopkeeper is still showing Beau and Jester some weird knick-knacks on the shelves and wow, one’s really shiny in this low light, gold and gleaming and -

“Nott?”

She shakes her head and turns quickly, making her way into the backroom.

Caduceus, Caleb, Fjord, and Yasha are all sitting atop closed boxes when Nott enters the room, dropping her invisibility and grinning wide, all teeth and bright eyes. Caduceus has a silver chalice in his hand.

“How did it go?” Yasha asks.

“Amazing.” Nott nods her head up and down repeatedly as she walks out the door into the alleyway.

~~~

Caduceus doesn’t find out last, except he also kind of does. He’s always sort of figured that Beau and Jester were a  _ thing _ , but he never really saw it for himself until now.

They’re settled around the War Room’s table, when the topic comes up - well, all of them are there except Beau and Jester, who are on the roof, painting a pretty mural of some sort. Caduceus was up there earlier, just watching them and gardening, until it became pretty clear that it was a Beau-and-Jester thing, and he took the hint.

“So.” Fjord drawls out, fingers playing with the rim of his tankard. “Beau and Jester?”

Yasha purses her lips. “Should we do something?”

“I think they’ll figure it out in time,” Caleb says slowly, his eyes clear and bright.

“No, they need a push!” Nott looks over at Caduceus, like he’ll be on her side about this. “Right?”

Caduceus hums noncommittally. He’s of the opinion that Beau and Jester already know what they want. Actually, he realizes, he knows something the rest of them don’t.

Cad blinks at them. “They’re kissing up there.”

“Wait, what?” 

“Yeah.” He takes a long sip from his tea, enjoying greatly the way everyone gapes at him. Being the most perceptive of the group is hardly a burden when things like this happen - these little happenstances of fate colliding with his enjoyment of secret-keeping. “They were painting. Then they kissed.” 

“You saw them?”

“I was gardening and spotted them under the tree. Figured I should leave them alone, all things considered.”

“Wait, wait, lemme see - we have to go up there!” 

Caduceus gently pushes Nott back into her seat. “This is their time.” 

That hidden moment under the grand tree was not for Caduceus, he knows this. He also knows that it’s not for anyone but Beau and Jester either. He’s content though, to have seen it anyways, to have had that look into their soft life granted by the gods. It’s a little like a sign of the tenderness to come, a sign of the growth that their group is sure to come into. That moment of softness, of Beau and Jester under the tree, covered in blue paint and foreheads pressed together? That was quite literally the most beautiful thing Caduceus’ has ever seen. Something holy, even. Not quite in the sense that it’s religious per se, but it’s something greater. The garden is growing, and so are they. 

Jester’s hand pressed against Beau’s cheek, leaving a blue hand print. Beau’s blue stained fingers swept over the curve of Jester’s jaw, leaving her own mark. 

Caduceus knows: there’s nothing more powerful than a garden made with love.

**Author's Note:**

> catch me on tumblr @flowercoasts! my ask box is always open :)


End file.
